1 Answer

@wbenroy yes you can but you have to make sure that your power supply does not exceed the voltage of the battery, so stay with the 3.6V to 4V range. Also, your Flip battery is a smart battery providing feedback to the device itself. This means that it is possible that it will not turn on by just applying power to the board without the battery. I'd leave the battery connected and just add power to the + and - contacts of the battery cable. Only use it long enough to transfer the videos since it could cause the battery to overcharge and damage it (fire hazard etc.) No you cannot transfer the data directly from the IC. You would need a custom programmer/ reader, proper deprogramming software and multiple other components.

I've dug through my pile of old stuff and everything I found was > 5V. But some of those were chargers for devices with li-ion batteries that seem to be pretty similar to the mino hd's. E.g. my old Samsung flip phone (which does come to life) has a battery that describes itself as Type 3.7 V Li-ion / MODEL: AB553446BA. Can I use something like this?

If so, how should I wire it? The samsung battery (all of them actually) have 3 "terminals". The right and left are clearly the + and -. But what is in the middle "terminal"? Is it T/temperature? What do I do with that one?

The mino battery has 4 wires coming out of it. Do I need to attach one of those to the middle/T/temperature terminal of the samsung battery? What (if anything) do I need to attach to the 4th/last lead?

Will it work/be easiest if I just plug the old/dead mino battery back in. And then just splice the + and - terminals of my samsung battery to the +/- leads of the mino battery?

No you cannot. you are running the risk of damaged your components by applying an over voltage. The charger would connect to the Flip and all current would go through the power management circuit. If you apply a higher voltage from the battery side, you are bypassing any protection within the charging circuit. If I would go that rout, I'd keep the battery connect and just apply power from an external charger to the + and - power leads. That way your circuitry should still read the information from the battery and may consider that a battery is installed. The temp and fuel gauge are usually protections from overcharging and exploding batteries :-)

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